Wide area network (WAN) communications systems are typically allocated a set of uplink air link resources and a set of downlink air link resources for use. At times some of those resources are less than fully utilized.
Reception and recovery of downlink WAN signaling by a WAN wireless terminal may be affected by other types of signaling, e.g., peer to peer signaling, occurring concurrently using the same downlink WAN air link resources. Reception and recovery of uplink WAN signaling by a WAN base station may be affected by other types of signaling, e.g., peer to peer signaling, occurring concurrently using the same uplink WAN air link resources. It should be appreciated that a peer to peer communications device which transmits peer to peer signaling at a given power level using WAN air link resources will tend to have a different impact on base station signaling recovery operations than on wireless terminal WAN signaling recovery operations. The difference in impact on the WAN wireless terminal and the WAN base station may be a function of various factors such as the peer to peer device's current proximity to the base station, proximity to the WAN wireless terminal, the transmission power levels of the various WAN signals and the channel condition between the WAN base station and WAN wireless terminal.
It would be advantageous if methods and apparatus were developed which permitted for WAN uplink and downlink air link resources to be shared to support other communications techniques, e.g., peer to peer signaling. It would be advantageous if some such methods and apparatus allowed a peer to peer wireless terminal to share uplink, downlink and/or both uplink and downlink WAN air link resources with WAN devices. In a time division duplex WAN system, methods and apparatus that allow a peer to peer device to continue peer to peer operations during both uplink and downlink WAN time slots would be beneficial. In a frequency division duplex WAN system, methods and apparatus that allow a peer to peer device to select and switch between uplink and downlink frequency bands to use at a given time would be beneficial. It would be advantageous if, in some but not necessarily all embodiments, peer to peer wireless terminal methods and apparatus could be developed which use different power control functions depending upon whether the peer to peer communications share uplink or downlink WAN air link resources.